Erosion, washouts, landslides, surface buckling and other natural and man-made events are responsible for huge amounts of property damage, injury and loss of life.
As an example, movement of railway ballast with respect to adjacent tracks can easily result in derailment of a train. Such movement may go undetected until it is too late. To the inventor's knowledge there has been no device developed that will provide adequate warning that such a situation has occurred. In fact the only way presently known for early detection of ballast erosion or track movement such as "sun kinks" is periodic visual track inspection. Railroads have recognized the problem and do make such inspections, but even with nearly daily inspection, events can and do occur which can cause derailment.
Similar problems can occur with paved and unpaved roadways, bridges, and in nearly any situation where a structure needs to remain substantially stationary relative to ground that has any capability of shifting.
A long felt need has thus existed for some system by which shifting of earthen material may be detected relative to an adjacent structure supported by the earthen material.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a sensing device for indicating movement of earthen material adjacent a substantially stationary structure.
The above and further objects and advantages of the present invention will become evident upon reading the following detailed description.